Xanth Book 39

# 39 - Five Portraits [FP]
	Piers Anthony delivers another tale set in the bestselling world of Xanth, filled with magic, surprises, adventure, and a few puns. Here’s what the author has to say about his new book: “Five Portraits is a kind of sequel to Board Stiff in that it picks up where the other leaves off, with the same characters. Apart from that, it’s one of my favorites within the series. There’s something about Astrid Basilisk that appeals to me: a very pretty girl whose very glance is deadly, yet she’s a nice person whose selfless effort to save five difficult children from future Xanth is thoroughly worthy. I also like the theme of the power of unlikely friendship. Not just Xanth, but Mundania, too, would be better if there were more such friendships.”
Major Characters

Character Name	Species	Origin	Talent	Notes	First Chapter Mentioned
Fornax	Major Demoness	EveryWhere	All Magic	Demon of Anti-matter; became a friend of Astrid (BS); credited with saving Xanth Became a friend of Astrid 2 and credited with saving Xanth Became a friend of Astrid 2 and credited with saving Xanth Became a friend of Astrid 2 and credited with saving Xanth	03
Metria	Demoness	Hades		Lover of Gromden; wife of Veleno; mother of Threnody, Ted, and Chaos; troublemaker who has a problem with vocabulary; has alter egos Mentia and Woe betide	01
Ease	Human	Xanth	Can make hard things easy	Strong, handsome, smart, but unknown; not able to affect emotions or causes. Short curly blond hair, bit of a blond beard, muscular body.	01
Merge	Human	Xanth		The 5 sisters: Black, brown, blue, red, yellow become one. Marries Hapless.	02
Art	Human	Xanth		Artist, immune to poison, ruddy complexion, red hair	01
Mitch	Human	Xanth	can summon and send ideas	Wears a hair shirt made from his hair.	02
Tiara	Human	Xanth		Girl with wild fair hair enabling her to fly by nulling density. Blue eyes, cherry mouth, nice features and print dress, poised. 18 tomorrow when met. She has many pun sisters	01
Astrid [BS]	Crossbreed	Xanth		Transformed from basilisk/cockatrice to human form; shapely, seeks love, but her perfume is intoxicating and direct look kills. She always wears dark glasses. Assigned by GM to protect the party. Wears the Sequins of Events dress. Credited with saving Xanth. Credited with saving Xanth. Credited with saving Xanth.	01
Kandy	Human	Xanth	maybe being irrelevant or eyed	Pretty, smart, but unfulfilled because she is either irrelevant or constantly pursued by Wandering Eyes. She wants adventure, excitement, romance. Gets them, but not the way she wants. Luxuriant midnight hair to her slender waist, matching dark eyes, lovely face. Torso yea-close to absolute perfection. Aka Irrevalent Kandy, I Kandy.	01
Myst	Human	Xanth	can become a patch of mist	Curly mouse brown hair, hazel eyes. Adopted by Merge and Hapless.	04
Win	Human	Xanth	always having the wind at one`s back	Adopted by Tiara and Mitch	04
Santo	Human	Xanth	makes holes	Adopted by Fornax and Nemesis, will grow up gay.	04
Squid	Alien	Xanth		Adopted by Kandy and Ease; mock octopus.	04
Firenze	Human	Xanth	fireworks temper	Adopted by Astrid and Art, who can stifle him with a look (fir-EN-zee)	04

KEY - Xanth Titles; so far, by the numbers: (Click on any Title for more info on that book)
1	A Spell For Chameleon [ASFC]	2	The Source Of Magic [TSOM]	3	Castle Roogna [CaR]	4	Centaur Aisle [CA]
5	Ogre, Ogre [OO]	6	Night Mare [NM]	7	Dragon on a Pedestal [DOAP]	8	Crewel Lye [CL]
9	Golem In The Gears [GITG]	10	Vale Of The Vole [VOTV]	11	Heaven Cent [HC]	12	Man From Mundania [MFM]
13	Isle Of View [IOV]	14	Question Quest [QQ]	15	The Color Of Her Panties [TCOHP]	16	Demons Don't Dream [DDD]
17	Harpy Thyme [HT]	18	Geis of the Gargoyle [GOTG]	19	Roc And A Hard Place [RAAHP]	20	Yon Ill Wind [YIW]
21	Faun & Games [FAG]	22	Zombie Lover [ZL]	23	Xone Of Contention [XOC]	24	The Dastard [TD]
25	Swell Foop [SF]	26	Up In a Heaval [UIAH]	27	Cube Route [CuR]	28	Currant Events [CE]
29	Pet Peeve [PP]	30	Stork Naked [SN]	31	Air Apparent [AA]	32	Two to the Fifth [TTTF]
33	Jumper Cable [JC]	34	Knot Gneiss [KG]	35	Well-Tempered Clavicle [WTC]	36	Luck of the Draw [LOTD]
37	Esrever Doom [ED]	38	Board Stiff [BS]	39	Five Portraits [FP]	40	Isis Orb [IO]
41	Ghost Writer in the Sky [GWITS]	42	Fire Sail [FS]	43	Jest Right [JR]	44	Skeleton Key [SK]
45	A Tryst of Fate [TOF]	46	Six Crystal Princesses [SCP]	47	Apoca Lips (The Xanth Novels) [AL]
Back to Xanth

Doug Harter maintains the Xanth Character Database, updating it as new books in the Xanth series are released. Thanks to Piers Anthony, for letting me see some of his Character Notes, to Peg Rombach-Riggs who did the work creating the original table, Seajay who supplied the numbers, Dawn M. Burge for suggesting and helping Origin to be accomplished, and FNProgramvare's BookCat, which I use to store the Xanth Character info.

# 39 - Five Portraits [FP]

Major Characters